Prime Minister Edi Rama attended the 17th Bled Strategic Forum, entitled The Rule of Power or the Power of Rules? Bled Strategic Forum is a project of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. It is organized jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and the Centre for European Perspective. The Forum takes place annually at the end of the summer, each year under a different title that guides the content of the discussions, as an inclusive platform, gathering participants from various fields with diverse knowledge, leading and prominent personalities of politics, diplomacy, economy, private and public sector and academia, who come together to discuss main challenges of the 21st century.
Prime Minister Rama took part in the leaders’ panel entitled The Rule of Power or the Power of Rules? The Future of the EU and the multilateral system of international relations – with European leaders, including the President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor, the Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, etc., set to discuss the topic, under the moderation of Ali Aslan, a German journalist and TV show host.
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy also addressed the Forum via a video link.
Ali Aslan: Hello Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to the panel. We will speak about energy in detail and about the energy security in particular, because it is something that is in everyone’s mind. Prime Minister Edi Rama, as a NATO country – you have been part of NATO since 2009 – this is a conflict that obviously you are following very closely. Let me also get your immediate reaction after the speech by President Zelenskyy
Prime Minister Edi Rama: First of all, I would like to thank you for the invitation, because I think Bled is one of the few Forums that is hosted not for the organizers, but for its invitees. It is definitely good to be invited in Bled and that’s why I would like to thank you.
I believe there is a big risk that the threshold of pain of Russians, for many reasons, is much higher. Ukrainians are really tough guys and this is a good thing. The good news is that Ukraine didn’t lose the war and Russia didn’t win the war for the time being, but it is very difficult to predict for the rest. I very much hope and pray that rich guys and countries will keep going and won’t give up.
As for Albania, we are ready with our heart to support Ukraine all the way. We have done everything we could do and we will keep doing so. However, I am not sure whether Albania can help Ukraine to win the war.
Host Ali Aslan: On that optimistic note, I was obviously going back to the war at hand and the sanctions that are something that Europe has shown perhaps unexpected resolve and very unified on that front, despite some few cracks here and there. Albania, though not an EU member yet, is still fully aligned with the EU sanctions on Russia and therefore the country might have become a target itself. Most recently, two Russians and one Ukrainian have been arrested after trying to enter a military plant in Albania. Are you on the forefront? You said Albania itself cannot change much, yet the country plays its small part, but clearly you have become a hostile entity from the Kremlin’s point of view.
PM Edi Rama: We have aligned with the EU foreign policies since day one and we continue to be aligned. We are usually very loyal to the empires. We were the last to leave the Ottoman Empire; even after the Ottomans themselves abandoned it. We were the last to leave the Stalinist empire after the Soviets had abandoned it 30 years earlier and we will definitely be the last ones to leave the Western empire. No doubt about it.
Host Ali Aslan: How do you explain this loyalty?
PM Edi Rama: Because we are good people and because in our code or in the earliest constitutions of the Albanians, the given word is equal to the honour. So, if you don’t honour your promise or your given word, you don’t have an honour anymore. We have given this word to the European Union and to the United States, which in turn have already given us so many words that they sometimes keep them and sometimes they don’t. However, they have a different sense of honour, since we are “too primitive” in that.
To answer your question, I would say that first of all Albania is very unique in that respect too. We don’t have gas. We don’t need the Russian gas. That’s why we can go very tough on Russia, because we simply don’t need their gas. Our history was as such that we don’t have any kind of feeling about Russia anymore. This is because, in the Soviet empire, Stalin’s monument was torn down or let’s say graciously taken out in the sixties, but we had Stalin’s monument even after the Berlin Wall fell.
And we are 100% renewable, by the way. I mean, our electricity generation is almost 100% hydro-based, which is a very good thing indeed, when God certainly is in good mood and he cries, but which is terrible when God is laughing all the time, because dry seasons means electricity imports and imports mean that we are affected by the energy market prices.
On the other hand, by not having increased the electricity price by a single dime, we have succeeded in maintaining the lowest inflation in the region to date.
It sounds great, when you consider it technically, but of course it is not good when you see it in the Albanian way , because it should be always better and there is no doubt about that.
The problem I see is how much –because it is not about… you mentioned Scholz, but I was not talking about Chancellor Scholz, when I referred to Germany , because Scholz is the leader and in terms of the leadership in the European Union the response has been very clear, very strong, very tough.
Host Ali Aslan: Are you talking about the public?
PM Rama: I am talking about the public. Because the difference between Scholz and Putin is that the public cannot oust Putin, but the public can definitely oust Shchoz. So, the coalition of democracies fighting an autocracy, where there is no room even to transmit a truthful information, while here the Russian propaganda, despite some measures already in place, can flow all the way and the debate between different parties whether to send weapons or not has started, but it makes it quite a vulnerable situation. When the big crisis hit, the ones in the biggest trouble are the rich and not the poor ones. This is because the poor have a much stronger sense of resilience.
I see the Balkans being completely fair and loyal and standing behind Ukraine all the way. I don’t know what will happen with the rest.
I paid very much attention to what President Pahor said, as he always has the capacity to touch upon the right points. I don’t believe that what is happening would make Europe accelerate the accession process. I think this is not going to happen, although I would really welcome it. This won’t happen for geopolitical reasons, but I hope and I wish that the European Union will be much more open to build a much more inclusive space when it comes to facing dramas. Because they can’t tell us: “Align with the EU foreign policy, be tough on Russia, but on the other hand you won’t get any help to cope with the consequences, like the EU members get.” They cannot do any more, I hope for their own sake and for their own honour, what they actually did during the pandemic, as I already said.
We were there powerlessly watching on the sidelines, while the vaccines were being sent all over Europe. We have relatives everywhere; as you already know that we are small countries, but we are everywhere, and they didn’t even offer us some vaccine doses for our nurses and doctors. What happened? We ran towards the third actors. In every speech, they say: “Let’s help the Balkans be with us instead of being penetrated by third actors –whatever you call it – but when it came to the vaccines, Serbs ran to China and to Russia, we ran to Turkey and we would have had many more lives lost if it was not for the President Erdogan. So, this is the reality. I very much hope that Europe has learned its own lesson and I hope that the public opinion will still allow Europe to go all the way.
Host Ali Aslan: We talked a lot about Ukraine, but I want to end, which is actually not a contradiction, but an expansion on what the Prime Minister commented on Europe and the future enlargement. We already talked about the fact that the war in Ukraine has perhaps accelerated the desire for green transition and it also seems to have accelerated the urgency on the part of Brussels to bring in new members and not lose them in this fight for influence to Russia, to Moscow. We have seen Albania after a very long time of waiting has finally started its accession talks. We have also seen Moldova being granted the candidate status together with Ukraine in June. Has Europe found a new purpose, if we are to consider the pre-war bickering about migration, even on the stage last year when we were facing the euro crisis and a lot of hurt feelings? Has the war in Ukraine brought the continent and the EU together? Has it perhaps served as a wakeup call?
There are certainly many countries knocking on the door, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Serbia. Obviously all these countries are trying to join the European Union at a time when Russia, for certain, but China as well are seeking to expand the sphere of their influence in this part of the world. You have been an EU candidate since 2014 and it is 2022 now and finally the EU is saying “let’s start the accession talks.” First of all, it is good news, I would assume, it is great news for your country, but in the meantime I am hearing in your answers a bitter sweet tone.
PM Edi Rama: First of all I would have to correct the Prime Minister. I am not a sceptical. I am tragically optimistic. If you would reflect upon this, I would say it is a category that you should consider that we are part of this region. Because being sceptical means cynical. Tragically pessimistic means suicidal. Tragically optimistic, yes it means tragic, yet… we have to dance. That’s the thing. And this is the spirit of the Balkans. Balkans are tragically optimistic. People who don’t know how life is in the Balkans they feel sorry for us. But, we feel sorry about them, because although our lives have been ruined many times, we are never boring or bored. This being said, I would like to say that no, it is not true that the war accelerated the “Yes” to Albania’s EU accession negotiations. It is not true.
The war didn’t accelerate anything, because the “yes” for Albania was there, if Bulgaria was not to be there. But Bulgaria is of course there and it kidnapped both North Macedonia and Albania long time ago, while all other member states were ready to say “Yes” to Albania after eight years. But being tragically optimistic means it is tragic to wait for eight years, but still it is a reason to be optimistic, because it could be worse as it North Macedonia had to wait for 17 years. So it can always be worse and it is better that you smile and keep moving forward. In other words it was Bulgaria and not Russia to trigger this. It was a NATO country that kidnapped two other NATO members while the war started. May be, this war made our European friends, especially President Emanuel Macron, who was also the President of the European Council at that period of time, be keener to lose his sleep. I was meeting him hours ahead of the NATO summit to convince Bulgarians that this was not a good idea and it was resolved.
Being tragically optimistic is also connected with another fact; we don’t have another choice. We face but only one choice. And when people say to me “thank you for being so patient,” I reply: “Do we have any other choice?” No, we don’t! Therefore, we have to be patient and we have to keep going forward, for one reason alone, the European Union is the only the safe place to be for countries like us. I believe also for countries like them, namely France, Germany and everyone else. But because they have been spoiled for a while, not having any more wars and getting constantly rich and richer, they certainly have their trouble with that notion. There is only one destination, the European Union, be it in this century. And as I earlier said, we will definitely go there it nobody would be there anymore. We will go there!
Host Ali Aslan: You have only 30 seconds, Mr. Prime Minister, though this might be a challenge. You have proven here that you are not a conventional politician. You said it yourself that you are an artist and you have certainly opened personal professional exhibitions throughout the world. If you had depict Europe in one painting, what it would look like?
Slovenian PM Robert Golob: I would give him my 30 seconds.
PM Edi Rama: I am funnier, because I am not in the EU yet.
Host Ali Aslan: How Europe would look like in one painting?
PM Edi Rama: I wouldn’t dare draw it, but I would say that for the time being Europe looks like Lucio Fontana’s “Hole”, but let’s see what is in there inside the hole, to see whether in the hole there is a strong light or we are in a deep hole.
